Le Tarot d' Oswald Wirth
Early occult deck by Swiss visionary Oswald Wirth emphasizing metaphysical symbolism.
by Unknown · Editions De L'aigle · 1800
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The record
Oswald Wirth was a Swiss occultist that is mostly remembered nowadays for designing one of the first Tarot decks with metaphysical symbolism in the late 1800s. His deck changed a little in imagery due to later re-workings, but remained true to his original goal of illuminating the Tarot De Marseille. He felt that with his new design that he was restoring the hieroglyphical purity that had been lost throughout time back into the Tarot. Oswald also wanted to show the Tarot in the light of freemasonry and added design elements that suggest the process of initiation into a lodge/freemasonry. His deck first appeared in the Tarot literary classic Tarot of the Bohemians by Papus. In 1927 Wirth published his own now classic book Tarot of The Magicians to coincide with the release of the deck that is the subject of this review. This deck was drawn in 1926 as a revision of the deck he drew for the Papus book Tarot of the Bohemians. In this revison pack, he included sacred geometric shapes, more colour and provided a lush gold ink background for each of the twenty-two images. Wirth only concentrated on the 22 major arcana cards, why he never wrote or drew the minor arcana is a bit
The cards
